This invention relates generally to a document scanning and printing system and method and more particularly to a system in which a video camera scans documents, either film or printed, and derives analog electrical signals which can be processed, stored, selectively recalled or applied directly to a printer which prints the information on a document which can be microfilm, microfiche or printed.
Modern information or document control has moved during the past years more and more towards the storage of information on microfilm. Storage has taken various forms: digital, other forms of mathematical methods, photographic images of documentation and holograms. There has been a long need to be able to update this information by being able to add new images, delete obsolete images and/or restructure the sequence in which the images are stored.
An example is in the administration of Social Security records for Social Security benefits. The earnings records for each covered person are scattered throughout many reels of microfilm. An individual conducting a search for all of a person's earnings history may have to go through a large number of separate reels of film gathering information from each in order to put together a complete history. This takes a great deal of time, personnel and lost motion and expense. There are other programs and applications where data pertaining to particular subjects is scattered throughout a plurality of documents in which there is the need to collate, restructure or update. Another example is in updating microfilm data pertaining to a given subject such as personnel records, drawings, processes, etc.
There are presently computer output microfilm systems which accept input electrical signals and print microfilm and microfiche and other documents. What is presently needed is an integrated system which can scan one or more documents, generate and process electrical signals and provide for compiling and updating information on mircrofilm, microfiche or in the form of printed documents.